Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Born & Kepler is named after the mathematician and scientists Max Born and Johannes Kepler. This bilingual podcast, offered in both German and English, dives into the expansive world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), exploring its foundations, evolving technology trends, academic search, and its impact on businesses and society.
Born & Kepler will feature a diverse lineup of experts from academia, venture capital, private equity, journalism, entrepreneurship, CTOs, and policymakers. Each guest offers unique insights into how AI is reshaping their sectors and what we might expect in the future.
Our goal is to provide a deep understanding of the core principles and breakthroughs in AI, enabling you to stay updated with the latest advancements in AI technologies and how they are transforming industries. During our episodes, we will explore how AI is influencing business strategies, optimizing operations, and driving innovation. We will also explore the ethical, social, and regulatory aspects of AI in everyday life.
Andreas Deptolla: Perfect, good morning Mike, great to see you.
Mike Collins: Good morning, Andreas. It's good that...
Andreas Deptolla: We are excited about our conversations today. Let's dive right in. I'm curious about how the idea of the Alumni Fund came together and what the most initiative problem was that you really wanted to solve.
Mike Collins: Yes, it came a bit through my own personal life journey. I was born in 1986, and my first job was in venture capital. I was really lucky to have something...
Mike Collins: It personally intersected technology, innovation, and venture capital, which captured my interests early on. And to this day, it's very deep, and I'm fortunate to have discovered something I was passionate about early on.
Mike Collins: The idea behind the ventures really came from an observation that on one side, the asset class course is so important that it truly is the engine of the entire economy.
Mike Collins: But it was really founded for those in work. Venture capital was the purview of sales funds, incidence funds, operating accounts, and billionaires. I was very frustrated as a very connected individual that when I was in work...
Mike Collins: I was often a startup, and it was very difficult for me to access the quality and quantity of venture capital deals that I knew were necessary in this asset class. So, Andreas, I was a product for myself. I built a large portfolio.
Mike Collins: I wanted the best sales...
Mike Collins: In certain sectors, I thought deep tech or AI was particularly interesting. Or if I was really fascinated by a particular company, I could name an individual. And that's what I wanted to expose myself to, the product I wanted to buy. And that's really...
Mike Collins: It's really my opus and my life's work, and now, 11 years later, we have over 11,000 customers, and we are in about 1,300 companies. I believe we have the best approach for individuals to venture capital in a narrow, simple way.
Andreas Deptolla: You said traditionally in investment competition, people need access to competitions. Now the competitions, how does that work? How much competition does someone need to acquire? What signs must someone sell with? What's the concept?
Mike Collins: We believe that people in some companies, venture capital is very much driven by a few big wins. It's a power-law business. It's a hits business. If you are in 100 ventures...
Mike Collins: There will only be a few, five or ten, that really make all the difference. We strongly believe that, Andreas, one should have a venture portfolio over three to five years of 100 companies. And what we do is that all our funds have very high minimums...
Mike Collins: $25,000 US venture capital will be a portfolio of 25 or 30 companies per year. If you do that year after year for four years, you get the benefit of not timing the market, which we also consider foolish...
Mike Collins: If you are in a large number of these companies with very strong investors, that's really the right way to do it. We make it very simple. People can invest in one of our diversified funds. The simplest way is just...
Mike Collins: The property, call it, the portfolio of 20 to 30 companies. It will be over 12 months. You have a complete portfolio with one check. And all the fees, all the documentation will be from this check, like our investments are, some will work, some won't.
Mike Collins: When the bill, when these companies go public, we have one of our companies that went public last week with great fanfare. We have six months, but when we come out of the lockup, we will position and then return the money to the investors and our...
Mike Collins: It's very important that investment capital is different from public equities. In an important sense, it's unforgettable. These investments in companies take years to mature. Our funds are structured as 10-year funds...
Mike Collins: You will have an amount, and then you will have amounts over a long time. So it really has to be used. It's like you buy a small Apple stock today, and you will tomorrow. You have to be aware of the context...
Mike Collins: You diversify your portfolio. You should talk to those with their families and financial advisors before making an investment. But think, when you hear venture capital, you hear the words venture capital and say it's risky...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: If you make one or two investments that maybe a friend shows you, then that's risky. But if you do it in a methodical, disciplined way where it's over time and with the right allocation of the right portfolio, then it, we believe, is a good diversification. And honestly, it's also a lot of fun and interesting.
Mike Collins: Because you focus on technology. More and more companies today stay private longer. I think many of you know companies like SpaceX and OpenAI. When I execute, all public companies today. But now there's so much value that's private...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: Where these companies remain private longer, that's really when you just wait for everything to go public, just an enormous value loss. I was talking to a friend yesterday who said the GDP in Japan is something like 5 trillion dollars, right?
Mike Collins: I think about the same GDP in Germany. You can now take a bike ride from San Francisco Airport. You will then have market values of 10 to 15 trillion. You have Apple, Meta, Google, Nvidia, all in this small hub...
Andreas Deptolla: Yes, yes, yes.
Mike Collins: Where the world is and where the world is going is now technologically led. I want more people in sales questions.
Andreas Deptolla: It's great what's happening in Silicon Valley. When the appreciation is perfect. If you really have something, Europe, Japan, other countries are very close...
Mike Collins: I would say, on an optimistic basis, Andreas, that's the story of the last 20 or 50 years. It's a Silicon Valley-US story. I believe the next 20 years will be much more of a global story. I think it's a change...
Mike Collins: In Europe and Japan and the Middle East. I think the next generation of young entrepreneurs will be a global story. About half of the unicorns in the world are now outside the US. I think these trends will...
Mike Collins: Anti-Silicon Valley or... But more positively, there are great startups in Scandinavia. There are great startups in the hands of Germany and really cool companies from Israel and Singapore. The next 20 years are just the language of Silicon Valley to the world. That's the story we...
Mike Collins: We as a company are opening global offices because we want great entrepreneurs to build great companies. Wizz is not a US company, but one of our portfolio companies. There are great stories starting everywhere.
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Andreas Deptolla: So the model you really focus on is like these alumni from the big US universities, Ivy League, and other schools.
Andreas Deptolla: Do you see a possibility? Can you bring this model to Europe, to Germany? What great technology schools are there? Would it make sense to have a similar concept that already exists in the US...
Mike Collins: Yes, I think we are trying now, this initiative. There are regulatory differences between countries, there are cultural changes in different parts of the world. But we strongly believe that we want to invest...
Mike Collins: In technology, innovation, and venture capital. We want clubs and communities with people who are in the US. There is already a very strong school alumni infrastructure. People who go to a university like to connect with other people...
Mike Collins: Who are in the same university in different parts of the world, that affinity is a bit different. In Japan, we now have a group, a club, if you will, of tech executives. They are not alumni of the same school, but all business people, technologists, and entrepreneurs who come together to invest...
Mike Collins: And companies and the opportunity to negotiate with each other from some of these portfolio companies...
Mike Collins: I think we are trying to change the alumni model where it is different countries, not just an alumni college but also a few people in a certain geography or in a certain profession...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: Or in another type of organization where a subset of them just come together to form a club, negotiate, and venture capital. So people can join a fund if they are not very sure and negotiate. We make a fund that everyone in a club...
Mike Collins: We have a way to invest, but we also have a way for people in the club to choose their own individual relationships. Also, in the club, the same relationships and the notes and a wise term that we in this startup...
Mike Collins: You are on the journey. And in companies like Blue Sky, Aura, or Reggetti, which we have invested in, they are really successful. It's a wise success.
Andreas Deptolla: It's so interesting that you talk about the different networks. You are on the university side, alumnus. I thought, what other networks do you...
Andreas Deptolla: In the example of the PayPal mafias, which are very famous. They have many other great companies, maybe that's an angle. Or, the feeling here in Germany, in one network...
Andreas Deptolla: And people, in US universities and this experience. Now here, but they still have common ground, the common bond.
Mike Collins: Yes, and you can do it in certain cities big enough where there is just an interest between a cross-section of people who might be in Berlin or who are entrepreneurs there. You can build the community. One thing we are building in Alumni Ventures is...
Mike Collins: We think that will continue. People like to trigger and connect with other people. A theme of our investor is that we all get involved. We are getting involved in robotics, quantum computing, and blockchain. But at the end of the day, people still like to connect with other people...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm. Mhm.
Mike Collins: I can have any song from any artist, any album, anytime on my phone, but I still like to go to a jazz club with friends or I want to be with 10,000 other people and see the show live. We think that whole part of the community, meeting in person or at least having the opportunity to meet other club members...
Mike Collins: Where they are the entrepreneurs, the companies. That brings it to life when you hear about the journey a founder made to start their business. And you feel like you are a small part of it, and that success. Success and failure. Many times, as you know, companies, even big successes like Amazon...
Mike Collins: They had very difficult times. It's not just an overnight success story, but also part of the journey. One of the reasons why in these fantastic companies is that our community, our portfolio companies...
Mike Collins: We are part of a network. We send newsletters to our entire community, that we have a portfolio company that needs something. Maybe they need a board member. Or maybe they need a foundation to help them in this new market. Or whatever it may be. We send the question to our...
Mike Collins: The community is very great. People want to help, especially if they are part of the company. The basic reason I started the business, which is still true today, is that venture capital is important, and we are better together than any one of us...
Andreas Deptolla: So this idea that a startup certainly needs money, but more than that, there is help, there is support from investors.
Mike Collins: Mhm.
Andreas Deptolla: You have the message, it's another systematic way, how you caused it? Whether it's the portfolio companies, maybe for early customers or other meetups, whether other structural things in which they are successful...
Mike Collins: Yes. If someone would simply agree to go to our website ab.vc and be part of our community, there is no cost. There are also opportunities, you can be an expert as an expert for our portfolio companies. We produce a good amount of content in the form of webinars.
Mike Collins: We will have a webinar on the way venture capitalists negotiate sales. We are investors in a company that Grok large AI infrastructure. We have a masterclass on how we negotiate sales and how we target.
Mike Collins: We have a screw where we negotiate. They like the operation of capital venture. We do a lot of webinars where you can learn about capital venture. You can learn about the ideas, have, about the future of nuclear, for example, or about cybersecurity. If you are interested, a technical area level...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: I would simply invite people to our websites, our webinars, our physical events. We do these in big cities. They are a lot of fun. They are also social. They mostly coincide with larger conferences. It's a tech week in New York, so we have...
Mike Collins: We have many games in the evening where people come, learn, and take away and hear about our portfolio companies. We invite people to invest. We invite people to participate. And we believe it makes sense for many more people to...
Mike Collins: You are in a well-diversified portfolio...
Andreas Deptolla: If someone says that's interesting, in terms of, do I have to be an alumnus of Dartmouth to join the Dartmouth Fund? How is that structured? I assume I am a creative investor. What are a few others?
Mike Collins: Yes, it's really a very simple process. All of ours are open. You have to deal with security solutions. You have to credit. The simplest way is, you can in forms if you are not with people. Or you can on the phone with one of our people, and they can with you...
Mike Collins: We have with people to whether they are newcomers or people who are very fascinated and more deal flow. I feel it, people with our people and with them the paper card to. There is no pressure, people can take their time. But if you are an available investor...
Mike Collins: We want to make it as easy as possible for you as an investor campaign funder. And I want to repeat that we in the sales...
Mike Collins: But we in the same terms and conditions of companies you have heard of. Our most common lead investors are companies like Andreessen, KOSLA, Sequoia, etc. others. These are probably the most famous. But there are 50 or 100 excellent capital firms. And we try to be the co-investors of choice...
Mike Collins: For the very best companies. We have quality, we that still business that is very dynamic, very fast, and many things don't work. Those that work, work, but you have to feel that...
Mike Collins: Within your portfolio, you're going to have some duds.
Andreas Deptolla: Is that one of the hard criteria for you, investment or not? It has to be on the list of the top 50 investors, Sequoia, otherwise, you wouldn't invest...
Mike Collins: We need a strong lead investor. It's not just the name of the company, but also individuals in the company who lead the round. We have almost 50 full-time investors, venture capitalists, who do all this, is venture capital. To the companies in a specific sector...
Mike Collins: And that there are strong investors in the sector. It's a very strong signal that those who lead the round of financing are a very strong signal for us. We do our own administrative services, we our own investor commissions, we our own process, but we are not even the deal process unless the company is the right...
Mike Collins: Very strong lead investor who leads the round of financing. If you have a very early existing deal, then that's not Sequoia. It could be a consortium of executives and strong angel investors. But that's for us the equivalent, who is involved, who is involved for the team...
Mike Collins: Is the entrepreneur active? That's not the venture capital firms, the smarter. That's really a good sign that a good entrepreneur has a really good syndicate. He can have a really strong venture firm join the one with great domain expertise and a great brand...
Mike Collins: There is a very strong correlation between the best companies and the best venture capital firms. That's really more a statement of the team and the entrepreneurs than the venture capitalist...
Andreas Deptolla: It's so interesting, Mike, you provided how certain industries, how it is with competition, the private competition you see it with real estate, the real estate block, often with the top 10, 20% of the market, most of the value...
Mike Collins: Yes, it's a bit like sports. The good teams discover the good coaches, the good general managers, and the good players. Yes, it's a world where the world is more digitized, a lot of value on a small level of really nice, beautiful players...
Mike Collins: You can have an interesting startup in Stockholm. You will with the business teachers. But if you really with the disease and the wealth globally, then you finally find a way to big, strong partners who with this disease...
Mike Collins: We try to our companies in the way we try to get to know and to other people who are in the mature. We are excited that...
Mike Collins: Internationally become. We want our companies, experts, and customers globally also...
Andreas Deptolla: That's fascinating. How does that think? You have many funds now, and I am it many data see. What do you see coalition? You have about the founder. Are there certain things that the time of the founder or know what their background or the time. What do you see, what probably the success...
Mike Collins: I think the founding team is pretty clear, but I just entertain it, is that the big companies really special founders and their abilities to see the world differently. You hear a lot about the reality service, which many of the best dismiss. But they have a very great vision for the future...
Mike Collins: They are not typically standard. They are often crazy, they are crazy, they are crazy, insanely mission-driven. There is usually very strong, what I call, product-founder-market fit. That I have a bit of history of myself...
Mike Collins: I have Alumni Ventures. I am not a 22-year-old, but I it for other 50-year-olds who are really frustrated with how to do it. I knew venture capital, I knew, an entrepreneur, but I really knew how to solve the problem. And so, what we for way is really...
Mike Collins: What is the vision of this founder, that a big idea but also probably not a conventional idea? And why are they probably the unique position to go, and that's really a difference between, that many superficial things in the right school or...
Mike Collins: Or or age or so on. It's really a vision. And is really, I would say, the other thing is the decision pressure. That they are something maniacal in their will, that what...
Mike Collins: I many viewers have probably heard that half of the unicorns are from people who are immigrants first generations or they in essential audacity. We see many things from the ecosystem of growing regions, the people who...
Mike Collins: Who on enormous reasons and in grit are those who are something special. You get many kids who want to work for 10 years, something to...
Andreas Deptolla: That all makes sense. You have a very unique view on it, so from an alumni perspective. The obvious question is...
Andreas Deptolla: What are the best startups? Do you see that MIT-Harvard funding three times better than other schools? What correlation do you see...
Mike Collins: I think you can have good founders from anywhere. Many of our founders have from the. You have a group of. You see schools like MIT or Berkeley, which have very strong technical people, very strong STEM backgrounds...
Mike Collins: That's a technical story. You see a team from Stanford, which has a technical background. That makes sense. I think these are more the characteristics of the individuals than the credits for a particular education...
Mike Collins: We invest in some more than technical, PhD types, because they really hard material in quantum computing. There are also other times, in which we invest, in really smart, 20 times so, who have a vision of what the world needs, no one else has, and who just stop that...
Mike Collins: I think it's our job, over paper, smart-darken credits to and the audacity of the problem, the audacity of the individuals...
Andreas Deptolla: Can you the performance of the different funds? Is that a distance? that's a goal, where you say, we want 3x, 5x money? Where are you typically?...
Mike Collins: I think that after Google what the venture capital over time. We try to be in the top quartile, top decile, venture return for this vintage. I know that's a vague answer, but we invest with the best...
Mike Collins: There are good and bad vintages. It's an asset class that has been in the last 30, 50 years. I will it with that. We will our customers in a great portfolio of very high-quality venture deals. We think they will have enormous knowledge for...
Mike Collins: Yes, the rule for venture capital is that money management 3-5x. Over a long time, there is a very nice IRR. But it will vary. It's a bit like in the stock market, that there are good and bad years. But if with the...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm. Mhm.
Mike Collins: And not try to be smarter than the next guy. You will be good. I would just people to the basics. You should your portfolio. Take the right application. Work with really high quality. And let time and treatment be your friend...
Mike Collins: And so is venture capital, what it with a "Get Rich Slow" business. I would just advise that this is not the day trader, the meme stocks. It's the opposite. This is that you in something that meaningful and teams really hard work to create value over a long time...
Mike Collins: I have in my life that the good thing is hard and takes a long time. And capital is no different than that. People, who think the short, that know more than other people. I think that someone, ... That's mostly not good...
Andreas Deptolla: And it goes back to your idea that you better get up to similar money every year. So you invest in different funds and different times...
Mike Collins: Exactly, like your public competitions. If you regularly your competition or just every week, every month, like you what you allow for it, if you just cut off and don't look, you will in five, ten, twenty and really, really...
Andreas Deptolla: Where is it for your investors, that's a broad question, but from a portfolio in venture capital, should it be 5%, 10%? Of course, these things always renegotiated. What are maybe some frameworks that make sense from your perspective to this number...
Mike Collins: Yes, I think, very personal. But I think what you mentioned, in the form. I think a great thing, there are now good tools with AI, where you just fall in and say, this is the stage of life, I am in, this is what I financially. That's a that's an idea of...
Mike Collins: Some equities, maybe a bit of real estate, maybe a bit of money. And then, how much should I in something in the venture capital bucket. What I will say is, if we a small family area will contribute family area in the bucket, that between 5 and 15% of their portfolio in...
Mike Collins: These alternative investments like venture capital. I think the idea of 10% that you over four or five years is not just so that you a million dollar portfolio 100,000 venture capital the startup street that's not so...
Mike Collins: 100,000 dollars or euros and in 50 companies in four or five years. That's a better...
Andreas Deptolla: That was so fire.
Andreas Deptolla: Mike, AI. Maybe two questions. One is, how you as a fund with AI, maybe your internal processes to make better decisions. And then for you personally, what maybe one or two applications wow, use that daily, my life more efficient...
Mike Collins: There are really three dimensions. We invest in many AI, AI-enabled companies. In every startup today, you have to fundamentally understand whether these companies are more AI-enabled or from a. You want to in companies...
Mike Collins: Every time AI gets better and better and better, which it is and is going to, they're going to benefit. We have not only an AI and robotics fund, we have an AI First Fund and even in some of our health tech or deep tech funds that there, you know, these things are often now drug discovery...
Mike Collins: Is now much more AlphaFold one of these AI tools. Then there is the investment line. Then there is the Alumni Ventures itself. We have an advantage from artificial intelligence. Because we have so many portfolio companies because large network company because we have so many customers we are very...
Mike Collins: It's not often complicated, but it's a lot. AI is an enormous damage to our company. We 1300 portfolio companies. Now can that so efficiently with AI that not only the recognition, the recognition, the coordination, and the communication with our companies...
Mike Collins: We can also about news and become, and competent dynamics. All that makes now portfolio monitoring much easier than before. The second level for us is that a fintech startup. That's a godsend. We are all in...
Mike Collins: And super excited about this technology. And personally, I am an AI-native CEO, and I have been for years, and it is integral to everything I do as a CEO. I personally see...
Mike Collins: The work of a CEO is changing quite dramatically, like most jobs. I think that CEOs better and in the non-technical areas of their work. Part of the good work of CEOs is the sales team, the storytelling, the care. We are looking more and more for CEOs who have these high skills...
Mike Collins: I think that there are teams that are only AI-native. We have a small office of the CEO, which is very high-leading technically called people who let me lend my own time. I have an assistant-to-the-CEO-AI person...
Mike Collins: Who is helpful to me. And then I think when you these things the future CEO in real doubt. I think there are many...
Mike Collins: There are many people, that that's not my me I the CEO. I think we see that with the founders. We think that that's the way for many jobs. You will not necessarily be replaced by AI, but you will be replaced by someone who is really good at AI your job...
Andreas Deptolla: It's interesting, you new startups very quickly...
Mike Collins: I have that already the period. How much you in a short time a little money and a very small team, that really on a geometric curve not a linear curve, yes, a very small team of AI-central people with a very small amount of money...
Mike Collins: They probably 10x what they 3-5 years ago. That's really deep. I am a tech optimist, and I think, that it every day. But I think when you talk about this productivity, the energy, health, and...
Mike Collins: And all these things, that every part of human life. I think, see not... We are only at the beginning of this knowledge...
Andreas Deptolla: I am sure it from your portfolio the best founders really in the earth try to learn it and to how the teams quickly spread...
Mike Collins: Yes, it's very practical. You can just more, and it's better. So, just an example, you have a client being, your ability, the client their experience with the product, and the they involve, the they possible are, to how you these randomly. Everyone has a fly from...
Mike Collins: Consultants, experts, helpers, analysts, really at your visit. And so, you just have to refrain from addressing how you do things. And so, the change hard. We all people. We are adopted, with the, how something to...
Mike Collins: I think we will see big changes in big parts of life from education, to healthcare, to the types of jobs, that the future. I think there will be many changes in the next five or ten years. And by the way, that will also be a background certainly, that there are people who find that terrible and who focus on...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: And say, stop don't do it. And will calls for...
Mike Collins: To stop. But I think that it's very offensive to think that this AI genie back in the bottle. Most governments now understand that AI...
Mike Collins: Strategic necessity to you cannot hide from it when other countries are not, and you have the biggest most powerful companies in the world, the Googles, the Medes, the Amazons...
Mike Collins: You see, in the middle link with the building of data centers. China is all-in on AI and energy. You can express unilateral things and say, we want in the AI position...
Mike Collins: I think practically, that no option...
Andreas Deptolla: It's interesting how you the regulations. I is also a part of the green differences between the US and Europe. In Europe, our first opinion, how we regulate what the problems which regulations we in place. I think we have to have the balance, the balance of the prognosis, the speed, but at the same time...
Mike Collins: That's a choice. But choice is, that someone else that. And as we already mentioned, 15 trillion dollar market cap in San Francisco, as 5 trillion dollar in the German economy. That's another possibility...
Mike Collins: And the power in the hands of...
Mike Collins: Or will you jobs and opportunities for big companies that people can make? That's a choice, that I believe, locally. And hear...
Mike Collins: That's not me, that there are no risks or goals of technology. Every new technology, back to the automobile...
Mike Collins: There are unforgettable consequences and negative things, that the rules. These rules cannot that you in the turn of the market. When will finally buy...
Mike Collins: Automobile from China, and you will the technology from the US...
Mike Collins: I think that there is a balance in all these conversations. I come from a perspective, in a big believer in innovation and technology, and then the entrepreneurs of technology, that exists...
Mike Collins: I think, in the US, I speak to my own country, we regulate it from a lot of energy. Nuclear energy, fission, but the world needs energy. Nuclear fission can now be very safe...
Mike Collins: Relatively clean, and it has more coal, than I think it's naive, to think that we will go back. I think we have to move forward together in a common-sense choice, that the public, watching, and...
Mike Collins: Innovation and support in and entrepreneurship, things better and problems...
Andreas Deptolla: I nuclear a really interesting example where it's very hard to change people's perception. The perception was shaped by a few goals. And the technology has moved on. But is certainly one of the main losses...
Mike Collins: We are really very aggressive, also in the area of energy. We robotics to mines, to small mobile reactors, we in nuclear, fusion, fission, we are in other forms of green energy, that we innovative...
Mike Collins: We think, the world needs more energy and more electrons. That's very much with the standard of living. Clearly, AI is a big user of energy. If you believe, that that's a loss of power...
Mike Collins: That everything present, and we better and interesting claims...
Mike Collins: Could more you that truth in the modern space sensationalism. So, another thing, that about the nuclear the self-driving vehicles. In the US, Waymo is really starting to achieve. We have an innovation that from...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: Kind of old legacy yellow cabs. And then there was the development of Lyft and Uber, and the world kind of figuring out that that was an interesting complement to that. And now if you go into San Francisco, Waymo is everywhere. And that...
Mike Collins: But when Waymo hits a trash can, it's front-page news. That's the way the world today. We make the case, as tragic as it is, history. It's not that the US 30,000 or 40,000 people per year...
Mike Collins: When drunk and sleeping, it's a risk. But when statistics say, that it's statistically you a long margin than people, I know I took a taxi from the airport in Chicago to downtown, and it was driven by people, and I thought, I have my life in my own hands...
Andreas Deptolla: Yes, drunk driving and all that...
Mike Collins: People are on the phone, the injured, the talking to his girlfriend, the changing lanes. I a robotic taxi because that's not safe. And yes, had an enormous tragedy with a plane crash. People lost. Impossible...
Mike Collins: But it's also probably the safest, statistically the safest two or three hours of your life in a plane. So we have to with technology, I try to be factual and data-based and to that today very much about attention and clicks and sensationalism. I think when we think about technology...
Mike Collins: We have to the rights and the rights to risks and then these problems. But often it is. It can be sensationalistic. And people who want to spend want this tragedy for their own advantage and not really advance society...
Andreas Deptolla: Mike, you a moment in the self-driving why is that more through the US and worldwide. Is the technology not there? Are there regulations? Is it, that the the behavior...
Mike Collins: I it is right now. I think, is case, in the entrepreneurs the sellers are. That's one of their work, they create a vision for the future, to solve these problems. You have to be a good storyteller and a good...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: They can before themselves. I think, the idea of self-driving vehicles is a very hard problem...
Mike Collins: A large language model, you the emails 80% are good. For you, the office 80% not even close to good. That's a very boring problem, where you need an enormous amount of data. But I would say, today in the summer of 2025...
Andreas Deptolla: Mhm.
Mike Collins: We at the beginning of the process. I think, if you in one of the US citizens, the Waymo would you very welcome, it because it's a great experience, and it just works, and Waymo will it. And Waymo, like alternatives, will everywhere and spread. We tend to... There is this classic...
Mike Collins: And the turn, the hype time, and time of loss, and then slow bonds, that just a part of life. I think we are with self-loss from the period of loss...
Mike Collins: And will the exploration. I think that these things take a year. Sometimes they take a whole generation. But think, very clearly the technology, the relationship, companies take, that more a natural, AI-learning, than a rules-based relationship...
Andreas Deptolla: Mmh.
Mike Collins: I have the something to. I had today a 15-minute commute, that self with my car was. I turned it on, when I from my bike. And I turned it on, when I in my parking lot. I was there...
Mike Collins: I my legs. I had news in the background like I would, if it a Waymo. But it worked. It worked without stress. It's now the point for me, where I find, actually sees and faster than I as a 61-year-old can. So I think, we should it that this year, 2025, the beginning...
Mike Collins: And think, that we 2035 in a completely different place it the number of self-management, that will take place...
Andreas Deptolla: And what we with our stress levels, productivity the period more meaningful things. Mike, thank you for this relief. I would maybe the beginning of the conversations as we wrap things up. You said, that you clear problem to solve when you the venture fund. And was to open...
Andreas Deptolla: And competition for more people. Now, a bit more than a decade later, what is another big problem, you for the next ten years. What is for you...
Mike Collins: No, mine, is really so, the story global is really, I think, the biggest thing on my, what gets me up every morning, is our networks of portfolio companies evangelical sentences, that I the world more people to that the venture capital is...
Mike Collins: The private version of investing in public companies. You buy a piece of a company. It's earlier, smaller. They will a bigger ability. You have to it in the right way. I think, that the expansion of AVs globally is, how I the next ten years spend...
Mike Collins: We want always better at the subject of our portfolio companies. We want on both sides of our market values on our investors. Can it for those, who in our communities...
Mike Collins: For the people, who here the Alumni Ventures their career and great things. It's an uncomfortable game, a company. I not so, that I the business start to or I wanted the business X...
Mike Collins: I much with the business as I that seen. I wanted to build, that over me and my life enhancements way that I not see anymore. I believe, we are in the early stages of the story and the journey. I more energetic than ever...
Mike Collins: Technology and the future area of innovation and investment in great entrepreneurs...
Andreas Deptolla: Mike, you the models in Europe scale, that open. That's exactly what Europe needs. These models, that innovation and the storms on the street...
Mike Collins: And that make unique with the people and the culture, that we in. I think, there are readings, that the US technology ecosystem. But I think, those, that Japan...
Mike Collins: Versus Germany and the government. The world has a lot of perspectives and views. I think, that all healthy. The power of a network is not, that all in the network exactly the same. It's, how we from one another, how we on the confrontation of different ways can make, how we all find...
Mike Collins: And things that for all. I have today day decided, in we in a startup team in India. We connect them with the capital in the US and help them, offices in Germany because they their products the service...
Mike Collins: That lead us all forward. If we all about the pie with the conscience and the security and respect for us all, then that's a much better relationship...
Andreas Deptolla: Yes, Mike, it's interesting, that you India. I am from India on Saturday. That's probably another full episode. There is a lot of innovation and opportunity. We would like to have you again. Mike, thank you for your time here, for your input. It was really a pleasure...
Mike Collins: I am happy, Andreas, it was nice to...
Andreas Deptolla: Perfect! That was great, Mike...